Friday, April 29, 2016

The Rivalry Between the Ultimate Warrior and Andre the Giant

Not sure why, but I found myself wanting to watch an old Andre the Giant match earlier.

So, I looked up for one on Youtube, and found this rather strange match, that ended in a surprisingly quick defeat for Andre.

However, this was not one of the one where the Ultimate Warrior managed to slam Andre the Giant, which he did on a couple of occasions, although they are not nearly as famous as the time that Hulk Hogan did it in Wrestlemania III.

These two men had quite a strong rivalry there for a while. And I have to admit, on some level, watching these matches made me feel a bit sad.

Andre, by this point, could not move all that well. And there were some matches that were incredibly short (the video clip immediately below the writing here is a case in point), because Andre's health was failing, and so the two men mutually agreed to a short match like that, as I understand it.

They had quite a few matches together, although again, I do not know exactly how many, and who won the matches. At some point, the Ultimate Warrior was the WWF champion, and to my knowledge, he did not actually lose his belt to Andre the Giant, which means that he probably officially won all of those matches.

Still, it was an interesting match, and perhaps Andre's last stand in the WWF.

As for the Ultimate Warrior, I remember being a fan of his highly energetic style. That intense music that came on as he was being introduced, then his sprinting to the ring, seemingly with boundless energy. He runs around the ring, then jumps up to the sides and shakes the ropes, working the crowd. It was all very intense when I was still a kid, and had a ton of energy myself.

Watching him on those old videos now kind of just makes me a bit tired. I can't imagine how much energy he needed to expend just for that entry alone, and then he had a wrestling match that he needed to use energy for.

In any case, it just seemed like something to share, for any fans of the old WWF wrestling, before it became a circus act.